Fairfax County Cops was working with Terrorists
Fairfax Cop Who Tipped Terror Suspect Helped Kill Training
Program
by Steven Emerson
IPT News
May 9, 2008
http://www.investigativeproject.org/664/fairfax-cop-who-tipped-terror-suspect-helped-kill-training
A Fairfax County Police sergeant who admits tipping off a
terrorism suspect that he was under FBI surveillance also helped kill what had
been a successful intelligence and terrorism-related training program within
his police department.
Now the president of an Arlington, Va.-based
counterterrorism research center is asking Rasool's bosses to reconsider their
2006 decision to cease using training programs offered by the center.
Complaints by Rasool and an officer from another local agency that the training
was anti-Islam prompted Fairfax County police to break with the Higgins Center
for Counter Terrorism Research.
In a letter to Police Chief David Rohrer written two days
after Rasool's sentencing, Higgins Center President Peter Leitner said Rasool's
complaints were unfounded and harmed his company's reputation: “We were deeply
disturbed and offended that the leadership of your Department sided with Rasool
and essentially blackballed our non-Profit (sic) organization from teaching
within your Academy. Several scheduled classes were cancelled and we were never
invited back…We were dismissed without recourse, suffered financial and
professional reputation losses, and the resulting pressures caused serious
damage to our ability to function properly. All on the basis of spurious
charges made by someone who later proved to be unreliable -- at best."
Leitner said he has received no response to his letter.
"This is precisely why Fairfax PD needs our
training," Leitner told the Investigative Project on Terrorism in an
e-mail. "They need to learn about 5th column activities and penetrating
agents. It also shows how ignorance and/or political correctness at the local
level can jeopardize national security interests and assets."
Though he pled guilty, prosecutors still complained that
Rasool was not playing straight with them. They originally argued that Rasool
deserved a sentenced at the low end of the federal guidelines. That changed
after a defense sentencing motion cast his actions as a simple administrative
oversight, and that had he submitted a relevant form, "it is possible the
case would not be before the Court today." Prosecutors then argued Rasool
was not taking responsibility for his actions, saying he even claimed not to
remember tapping in to the federal database and that he initially denied
knowing the suspect or calling him. He confessed only after hearing a recording
of the call.
"[A]s I told you, I can only tell you if it comes back
to a person or not a person and all three vehicles do not come back to an
individual person, so I just wanted to give you that much, uhh ok. Hope things
work out for you," Rasool said in a voice mail message to his friend that
was intercepted by federal investigators.
Rasool's attorney argued he was responding normally to a
citizen's concern that he was being followed. "Rather," prosecutors
responded, "the evidence is that the defendant was advising the target
that he was being following by government vehicles."
In their sentencing memo to the court, prosecutors made
clear the severity of Rasool's breach: "The defendant, through his experience
with the police, had a basis to believe that the leasing company was used for
federal law enforcement vehicles, but despite that, relayed the information to
the individual. The defendant also checked his name and other names multiple
times in NCIC without a legitimate law enforcement purpose to do so and to see
if he or others he was acquainted with were listed on the Terrorist Watch
List.
The defendant's actions damaged the integrity of the NCIC
system and jeopardized at least one federal investigation. The defendant's
actions could have placed federal agents in danger. The FBI has had to undo the
harm caused by the defendant."
The Higgins Center had offered courses for years without any
complaint, yet in June of 2006, that all changed. In a letter dated June 26,
2006 to Academy Director Major Tyrone Morrow, Higgins Vice President Brian
Fairchild indicated six officers in total lodged complaints against his
programs. But the complaints did not reflect the program's actual content,
Fairchild said, noting that statements used to illustrate Islamist ideology
come from the Islamists themselves. In addition, instructors repeatedly make
clear that the Islamists expressing radical ideology do not reflect the general
Muslim world: "It appears that these officers misunderstood and/or are
confused by the content of our courses which is solely to educate officers
about Islamist terrorists and the international revolutionary Islamist movement
that creates and supports them. We are surprised by the assertions in these
complaints, because, in order to ensure that such misunderstandings do not
occur, we clearly define our terms in lecture supported by PowerPoint slides.
In our seminars, we never criticize traditional Islam or
Muslims. Quite to the contrary, we definitively and repeatedly state that the
overwhelming majority of the 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide are fine people that
have nothing to do with extremism or terrorism." (emphasis in original)
In one complaint, Fairchild noted, the officer praised
Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, who founded the Pakistani Islamic group Jamaat
e-Islami in 1941. Maududi, Fairchild wrote, considered non-Islamic governments
to be evil and sanctioned their violent overthrow.
"One of Maududi's direct quotes concisely describes his
views: ‘Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face
of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam
regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is
to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of
which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of
which nation is undermined in the process of the establishment of an
ideological Islamic State.'" (emphasis in original)
Rasool was under federal investigation at the time. In
addition to running the license tag numbers, he admitted improperly accessing
the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database 15 times in 2005-06,
checking for his own name and the names of acquaintances. "The defendant
did this in an attempt to determine if he or others were registered with the
Violent Crime and Terrorist Offender File, which is a category of records
maintained within the NCIC system," the plea agreement states.
In an interview, Leitner expressed frustration with the way
Fairfax police officials treated him and his company. He called the complaints
"nebulous," and said he was never given a full opportunity to rebut
them. "It was very star chamber like."
Another officer who joined Rasool in complaining about the
Higgins program works for an area sheriff's department, Leitner said. That
officer claimed to be a representative from the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), Leitner said.
In November 2006, Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer
attended CAIR's 12th Annual Banquet at the Marriott hotel in Crystal City. He
credited CAIR with "helping police departments to better understand the
Muslim community," adding: "As we go forward, let us choose to make a
difference and embrace a vision of peace and unity and hope. And let us choose
for us and our children hope over fear, caring over indifference, tolerance
over intolerance, acceptance over prejudice, and understanding over
ignorance."
Among those writing to the sentencing judge in support of
Rasool was CAIR governmental affairs director Corey Saylor. "I have always
found Sgt. Rasool eager to promote a substantive relationship between the
Fairfax County Police Department and the local Muslim community. His efforts
played a significant role in improving trust in a time when mutual
misunderstanding could easily severe (sic) all positive ties between these two
groups."
Another letter of support came from Tyrone Morrow, the
training academy major to whom Fairchild wrote his letter of appeal in 2006.
Morrow, now retired, told the court he used to supervise Rasool and found him
"to be of sound character and reputation." Despite his plea to a
misdemeanor, Rasool remains a Fairfax County police sergeant although he is
under an internal affairs investigation.